June 2020 Book of the Month Review and Coupon

I skipped the May Book of the Month and it worked out for June, since there were two books I wanted and I was able to use my rollover credit to get one of them. This month's selections were really interesting.

*Disclaimer: This box was purchased by See, Shop, Love! Post contains referral links.

Book of the Month is probably my favorite subscription and it's a must-have for book nerds. You'll get a new release hardcover for only $14.99 each month. You can choose from one of five titles and if none of them pique your interest, you can skip the month. You'll be charged, but then that credit will roll over to the next month until you choose a book (you can skip as many months in a row as you want).

You can also add on any number of titles to your box for $9.99 per book, which is an awesome deal. Since I had skipped May, I used my $14.99 credit and paid the $9.99 for the extra title.

The first book I chose was A Burning by Megha Majumdar. I say first because, if I didn't have the rollover credit, I would have chosen this book only. It's a debut novel from the author and is about three people in India whose paths cross around a terrorist attack. Here's the synopsis:

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely—an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor—has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.

Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut.

The second book I chose was Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. This is the fourth title from this author and the fourth time they've been featured in Book of the Month. I've read two previous titles by them and I enjoyed them. I figured this title would be a fun, more easy read to balance out the heavier themes in A Burning.

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Bottom Line: I'm excited to dive into both of these titles and was very pleased with the selections for June. I ended up getting two brand new books for only $24.98, which is still less than the price of most hardcovers in a bookstore! I love Book of the Month and look forward to checking out the new titles each month.

• Visit Book of the Month to subscribe
• Use coupon code SUN5 to get your first book for only $9.99